Pushkar: Holy Handlebars!

My second favorite experience in Pushkar was the Pushkar Fair Annual Mustache Competition. That's right folks: I attended a mustache competition at a camel fair in a desert in India. I know, I know...I didn't think it couldn't get any crazier than Drunk Love Zombie, either.

But here we go.

After meeting some great folks at Milkman that morning, including a fellow music educator (!!!), we made our way to the crowded arena where this competition was schedule to take place. Jon, the music educator, had a pretty impressive display of facial hair, so he went to join the competition... and got kicked out after about five minutes. Poor Jon. While I felt sorry for the guy, I was quickly distracted by the other, Indian participants. I feel this experience can best be shared in photo form.

Contestant One:

His beard dreds were at least twice as long as his arm span.
I don't even want to think about how long it must have taken to cultivate those.

Contestant Two:

This guy would intermittently hold his ribboned beard dreds out from his face,
fall to his knees and laugh maniacally. Awesome.

Contestant Three:

You might wonder why Contestant Three is so impressive, and then you realize
that his lush black beard is tucked behind his ears. Like whoa.

Contestant Four:

This guy is pleasant-looking and has a great turban, but this isn't a turban contest.
(The turban contest happened an hour earlier.)

Contestant Five:

Though he has no dreds, Contestant Five's facial hair is pretty impressive.

Contestant Six:

Ok, I'm not sure why this guy is even here.

And the winner is (drumroll, please!):

Contestant Three!!!! Look at that impressive sword.

AND THE BEST PART:


While my friends and I were drinking chai at a stand behind the stadium where the contest took place, and who should show up with his wife and a bejeweled sword? Oh, just the winner of the mustache competition. So we all sat and drank chai and talked about facial hair and swords for a while. He told us that not only did he win this competition this year (2013), he also won it in 2011, and last year he was Mr. Desert 2012. I'm not quite sure what criteria were used to adjudicate that contest, but I'm sure it would have been a sight to behold. I even got to interview him for a video that I put together, which was really cool!